The timing of Britain's partial suspension of arms to Israel is shameful

Politics is often about symbolism and more often than not about timing. Suspending some of the UK arms shipments to Israel now, at this very moment when six Israeli hostages have just been brutally murdered by their Hamas captors is not just shameful, it's unbelievably crass and damaging for our country's reputation. The fact that it won't make a huge difference to Israel's ability to continue prosecuting its war with Hamas is not the point. The point is it sends a message to Hamas that all is not lost. Keep going and perhaps other countries like Britain will stop fully supporting Israel. Of course every country supplying arms to Israel, even if it's mainly spare parts for aircraft like in Britain's case, has a duty to ensure that the weapons or parts of weapons are not used to target civilians or run the risk of causing casualties among civilians. But the war in Gaza has been going since the October 7 atrocities by Hamas and the previous Conservative government examined exactly the same licensing issues and came to the view that exports to Israel could and should continue. The US carries out the same reviews and came to the conclusion that it should suspend deliveries of heavy air-launched unguided bombs because of the huge risk of collateral damage. Israel was furious but the rising deaths among Palestinians in dense urban areas proved Washington's point. But this partial suspension by the new Labour government in Britain is much more about political symbolism than actual battleground judgements. The same civil servants and government lawyers presumably examined the same issues as they did when the Conservatives were in power. So the change of judgement was pure politics. For that reason, it sends the wrong message at totally the worst possible time.